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Chapter 23
Lights blinked to a steady beat over Coruscant, at least from Obi-Wan's perspective as he sat in his seat in the High Council chamber. Everything twisted and shifted into a blur of black shadows and artificial illumination. Dawn had not yet broken through the night, though it would soon.
He'd left in such a rush to attend an emergency Council meeting that he hadn't properly parted with Anakin, and that troubled him. He'd meant it when he said he would have a talk with Anakin later, just the two of them, to clear the air between them. To set things right in a way Anakin could hopefully understand. Yet now, for all he knew, Anakin had hopped on another ship and vanished across the galaxy.
With Sidious still out there and Anakin still one of his major targets, Obi-Wan wanted to know Anakin's location. He wanted people around Anakin who would protect him from Sidious, of course, but also from himself.
Anakin's heart had stopped. He had been clinically dead. Every time Obi-Wan thought of it, his own heart murmured in disagreement.
"Obi-Wan." Master Windu's voice cut through his thoughts and stirred him from his ruminations.
Obi-Wan blinked, bewildered, and realized the other Council members, both those present and those attending via holographic projection, stared at him in anticipation. His mind had wandered again. It had been doing that a lot lately, and it was the second time this meeting he'd drifted elsewhere. He ran his hands over his face and tried a smile, but he couldn't muster one.
"I apologize," he said, and he heaved a sigh. "What was the question?"
Master Windu looked to Master Yoda, but Master Yoda stared at the floor, his face in a tight frown. Obi-Wan needed to focus.
"I understand you just returned and must be weary," Master Windu said in his form of subtle apology. "So we'll try to keep this brief. My question to you is, do you feel Skywalker is a liability?"
Obi-Wan blinked again, several times, before the word landed in his mind. A liability. The young man who had traversed the galaxy stealing from ruffians to give to the lost and forgotten, who had steered his ship into a massive laser to stop it from firing on a planet, and who had stopped his own heart in his desperate efforts to stop said laser from destroying yet another planet.
"A liability of which you need to be concerned? No," Obi-Wan said, and he left it at that.
"But someone should be concerned?" Master Windu leaned forward in his seat and tented his hands in front of him.
Obi-Wan took a deep breath. He was concerned, and not because Anakin was a danger to anyone else. Anakin was a danger to Anakin, and since Anakin was no longer a Jedi, it had no bearing on the Council. None in that room bore ill will towards Anakin, Obi-Wan knew, but the vision had only widened the rift that always existed between Anakin and everyone else in the Order. Within the Order, Obi-Wan would be alone in efforts to keep Anakin from destroying himself.
"Very well," Master Windu said without pressing further. He sat back and rested his arms on his seat. "It should be safe to leave him for the time being. Since he walked away from the Order, he is in the Senate's hands. And I feel, very soon, they may change their tone about him."
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow.
"The Senate has been deliberating about nominations for Chancellor, and it seems one nominee may have Skywalker's interests in mind," Master Allie explained, leaning casually in her seat. "Senator Organa was nominated by Senators Amidala and Mothma, and it sounds as though Senator Organa has a sizeable amount of support in the current Senate."
"Bail!" Obi-Wan sat forward.
A smile spread on his lips despite a poor attempt to restrain it. Bail would be one of the top nominees, without a doubt. He was a renowned speaker and already popular in the Senate. He had a way of moving people with words that few others did, and above all else, he was wise and compassionate. The man hardly had a sour bone in his body. Fiery and fierce, of course, but only in the name of justice—of what was right.
"I believe he was just formally nominated earlier tonight. Much of the Senate still deliberates at this hour," Master Windu said. "Of course, it will be some time before the Senate votes, but it seems likely he will win the election."
Obi-Wan sank in his seat and looked out at the blinking lights of the sprawling city. Chancellor Organa had a nice ring to it, and Bail would serve the people of the galaxy well. Obi-Wan had little respect for politicians, and Bail was one of the limited few he trusted.
"Continuing our discussion on the Death Star, so we can wrap up here and let Obi-Wan take a nap…" Master Windu leaned back, the corner of his lips quirking upward.
Obi-Wan chuckled but couldn't argue. His gaze went back out to the dark world and its twinkling lights, and his mind, as it did, wandered elsewhere. The Council talked of the Death Star, and Obi-Wan vaguely caught information on it.
The massive weapon had been disassembled and the pieces separated or destroyed to prevent the production of a second weapon. Many of the Jedi had been dispersed throughout the galaxy to monitor for a second Death Star and to continue their strikes against the Separatists. And, of course, they hunted for Sidious, who continued to elude them.
Obi-Wan caught an overview of the conversation, but the words muddled together in his head. After a while, he found himself focusing wholly on the darkness smothering Coruscant. His stomach turned, and he frowned.
"Hmm," Master Yoda said after having been quiet their entire meeting. The sound of his voice alone drew Obi-Wan's attention.
"Are you all right, Master?" Master Ti asked, her projection rippling as she moved in her seat.
"A great disturbance in the Force, I feel." Master Yoda raised a hand to his chest and clutched the front of his tunic. His brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, and ears sank. He turned his face one way and then another. No one interrupted him. "The presence of the dark side, heavy it is."
Obi-Wan's stomach twisted again. He sensed it, too. Something felt out of place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Master Yoda rose abruptly, and his face snapped towards the door. Obi-Wan's stomach plummeted, and he and the other present Council Members rose. Darkness permeated the air, as if it might take a physical form, and strangled the typical, effortless connection with the Force. Like drowning.
"Come, he has," Master Yoda said, and he marched to the doors.
Sidious.
"Alert the others to be on guard," Master Windu said to the holographic projections of the other Masters. "Await contact, but be ready."
Each of the projections offered a quick nod and vanished in a blink. Obi-Wan and the others followed Master Yoda out the door. A sense of evil radiated through the Temple from a singular point, oozing through the halls and corrupting everything it touched. Many Knights fell in behind them, but Padawans and younglings fled. Visions flickered through Obi-Wan's mind of another time and place when those same young Jedi lay slain on the floor. That would not happen, not in this lifetime.
They reached the Great Hall and found a singular black blotch marring the vast, decorative space. A cloaked figure stood with his back to them, still and silent, unconcerned by the thunder of footsteps that arrived. As though it took great effort on his part to be bothered, Sidious turned to face them so that only half his pale face peeked out of his cowl.
"Only five Masters this time?" he asked. "Better than last time, but I would have thought you'd have learned your lesson."
"Five will be more than enough." Master Fisto drew and ignited his lightsaber, and he shuffled sideways to get to the other side of Sidious.
Obi-Wan and the Masters spread out in a circle around the Sith Lord. The Knights who followed did likewise but remained behind them. All drew their lightsabers and ignited the blades, filling the Hall with light.
As he moved in the circle, Obi-Wan noticed the bodies of the guards sprawled at the entrance to the Great Hall. Guards and several Padawans and Knights—unsuspecting victims when Sidious entered. He'd grown much stronger in this lifetime. Obi-Wan's chest ached for the lost comrades.
"It seems once again I am at an advantage," Sidious said. His eyes followed Master Yoda.
"One should not boast about a victory not yet achieved," Master Windu said, his face glowing from his purple blade.
"Master Windu." Sidious grinned from ear to ear. "Didn't I end you in another life? Oh right, I had a little help…" His wicked gaze swung to Obi-Wan. "Do tell me, where is Anakin?"
Fury simmered inside Obi-Wan, and he wisely chose to hold his tongue. This was the man who had sought Anakin for years, who had twisted Anakin's mind, and who had corrupted Anakin and made him question everything, even his own worth. Anakin may have chosen the dark side in another life, but Sidious had been the one doing everything feasibly possible to push him to it since Anakin was a small boy.
"I feel your anger," Sidious said, and a chuckle slipped off his tongue. He glanced at the other Masters. "You put on the perfect façade, but you are no better or different than me. You wage war against anger because you fear it. Fear what it can do to your perfect, pristine personas. If only you would embrace that side of you as I have—then you might be capable of killing me."
"Our intent to kill you, it is not," Master Yoda said. He took a fierce stance, and the rest of the Jedi around Sidious did the same. "Surrender, and lay down your weapon."
"I think… I shall not."
Sidious swept a hand through the air, his cloak twisting, and the Knights on the fringes of the circle flew back into the walls. Obi-Wan and the Masters slid backwards but grounded themselves with the Force. As one fluid body, they lunged inward to strike at the Sith Lord.
"Do it," Sidious said to no one, almost at a whisper. He moved his arm, and Obi-Wan saw the flash of a comlink in his hand.
A jolt of pain lanced through Obi-Wan's head and twisted every muscle in his body. His legs gave way beneath him and he crumpled to the polished floor. Having been mid-lunge, he slid into the circle and stopped not far from Sidious' feet, and his lightsaber clattered to the tile and skidded away from him. Through a haze of pain that covered his eyes, he saw the forms of every other Jedi in the room go down with him.
Nightmares echoed the pain in waves, unrelenting, twisting his thoughts until he could make sense of nothing. Visions from the past and future, death and devastation, enslavement of entire planets, entire worlds laid waste under Sith rule. He felt the death of millions of lives as he'd felt the death of Alderaan in the future. It repeated, a cacophony of excruciating cries.
"It is amazing what an additional two decades of wisdom can offer," Sidious said, but his voice gurgled as if through water. Muted and distant. The Sith Lord, or at least the black shape Obi-Wan perceived to be Sidious, paced a small circle inside the ring of Jedi who had crumbled to the floor. "I'd always wondered about controlling the minds of others. A difficult task over the long term, and so hard to maintain when chips installed in brains served a much more practical purpose."
Obi-Wan writhed and tried to find his lightsaber on the floor. When he thought Sidious had turned away, when he couldn't see the white oval of his face in the blotch of black, Obi-Wan pulled his lightsaber to him with the Force. It tumbled across the floor to his fingertips, but he hadn't the strength to grab it. Sidious glanced at him but did nothing to stop him. Obi-Wan could do nothing else as every muscle contracted and resisted control.
"And then, of course, all of you Jedi were dead, so I couldn't much implement this plan years later." A chuckle escaped Sidious' lips, short and low. Cruel. "Truth be told, Gubacher and young Anakin helped with this. A wide-range transmitter set to very specific frequencies that would impact sentient minds: absolutely brilliant."
Sidious kicked someone in the ring, though Obi-Wan could not distinguish whom in the blur.
"So I thought to myself, what of a weapon that coupled that same technology with the Sith holocrons that you Jedi are oh-so feeble against." Sidious shuffled in his small circle. Pleasure rang through every word. "What if I could broadcast insanity across the whole of the galaxy?"
Obi-Wan's muscles relaxed, but only slightly. The nightmares receded and gave back some semblance of clarity. He'd felt all this before, the corruption of Sith holocrons. Even being in their presence darkened the Force so immensely that it could destroy the mind of powerful Jedi. History had shown that holocrons could be weaponized, but to weaponize it on such a grand scale—it had never been done before.
"With enough holocrons, and with enough of the right holocrons, it actually wasn't so difficult a feat," Sidious said. He faced Obi-Wan, as if inspecting him. "The holocrons are now broadcasting dark energies across the galaxy, and every single Force-sensitive life form should be in the same predicament as you."
"You… will not… win." Master Windu choked out the words as if strangled. Sidious spun and kicked him hard enough to slide Master Windu across the tile floor.
"I already have. For once I break your minds, I shall use another holocron and enslave you as I did the clones." Sidious marched after Master Windu and kicked him again.
Obi-Wan slowly, carefully pushed himself to one knee without making a sound. None of the other Masters seemed capable of moving, and Obi-Wan attributed that to his past experiences on Zigoola. He'd spent hours—days—resisting a vast amount of holocrons. He'd eventually fallen, but not immediately. Besides, something painfully familiar stirred in his mind at the touch of the dark holocrons' powers. Now he knew the dark side, too, because of Anakin's memories.
"We will fight," Master Windu insisted, and he tried to lift his head off the floor, tried to lift his face towards Sidious.
"And then your fellow Jedi will cut you down." Sidious kicked him again, then hoisted him into the air with the Force and flung him into one of the hall's many pillars. The pillar and terrace above crumbled over Master Windu. "Your dreaded Order 66, only you will slaughter each other."
Sidious laughed, and it rang throughout the vast hall. So chilling and menacing that it sent waves of bitter cold down Obi-Wan's spine. Now or never, before the Sith Lord turned to face him and he lost the element of surprise.
Obi-Wan threw himself forward, silent as he could, and swung his lightsaber in a swift flash of blue light. His reaction time must have been slower than he realized. Sidious swiveled in a twist of black fabric, caught Obi-Wan's blue blade with his red lightsaber, and flicked the weapon straight out of Obi-Wan's hand.
Sidious swept a hand in the air and hoisted Obi-Wan off his feet, crushing his throat under an invisible grip. Obi-Wan grappled at a hand that wasn't there and kicked his feet, to no avail. He reached for the Force, but only darkness answered him and crowded his mind.
"Kenobi," Sidious said, silky smooth and full of pleasure, "It seems you are somewhat capable of resisting due to your peculiar connection with Anakin. Maul said it might be so." He squeezed his fingers to his palm, and the grip around Obi-Wan's throat tightened. "Tell me: where is Anakin?"
Obi-Wan's vision darkened and only made the horrific visions and screams in his head that much louder. Sidious prodded at his mind through the Force, trying to break through his defenses, trying to find the information he wanted. Thankfully, even a holocron destroying Obi-Wan's mind wouldn't give away Anakin's location, because Obi-Wan didn't know it. Obi-Wan mentally pushed back just to make Sidious' life a little harder.
"Very well. You needn't tell me." Sidious relinquished his grip only enough for Obi-Wan to snatch a mouthful of oxygen. "Anakin is probably the only one capable of resisting, you know. Because he is already so intimately connected to the dark side. Dark or light makes no difference to him. So I will have to break him by some other means in order to control his mind. All I need is to lure him here."
The Sith Lord stepped forward, standing just out of Obi-Wan's reach. If he'd moved any closer, Obi-Wan would have kicked him out of spite.
"Anakin has gotten very good at hiding his presence from me. I wonder if he has done the same to you." Sidious grinned from ear to ear. "No matter. I have other means of sending Skywalker a message."
Sidious tucked away his lightsaber, slow and casual, as if he had all the time in the world. Then he thrust both hands out, fingers forward, and poured Force lightning into Obi-Wan. Pain flared through Obi-Wan from head to toe, like burning alive in a fire. Like Anakin had felt when burned alive on Mustafar. Obi-Wan screamed and his vision went black.
"Louder, Kenobi. I need Anakin to hear this," Sidious said in a wobbly, distorted voice. "I need your young apprentice to come running. I'll have to break his mind the old-fashioned way… and perhaps I will let you do the honors of torturing him." A mute chuckle. "Yes, I think that I will."
Obi-wan faded into the merciful quiet of the Force. Only, it wasn't merciful at all. Only darkness, nightmares, and violent images of death awaited him on the other side. Silently, as he slipped into treacherous oblivion, he pleaded for Anakin not to come back.